Hyderabad has become the new hometown for major tech companies and OnePlus has bolstered its presence in the city with the opening of India's first R&D facility in the Southern Indian city. Located in close vicinity of Amazon's massive campus, OnePlus R&D occupies five floors in a multi-storey of the tech park.
Former Minister of Telangana, Mr K. T. Rama Rao and Mr Jayesh Ranjan IAS, Principal Secretary for IT and Industries, together with OnePlus CEO Pete Lau and OnePlus India GM Vikas Agarwal inaugurated OnePlus first R&D centre in India on Monday. The company execs laid out some big plans, which will help grow OnePlus in India and across the globe.
OnePlus announced that it plans to invest Rs 1,000 crore into its R&D (research and development) facility over the next 3 years. The R&D unit will act as a catalyst in the development of innovative technologies and create jobs in the city.
Inside India's first OnePlus R&D facility
OnePlus has secured five floors in the Vamsiram's Sohini Tech Park's high-rise building for research and development. Only one of the floors has been fully completed and as and when the workforce grows, more floors will be ready to occupy.
The OnePlus R&D centre will focus on software, its critically-acclaimed OxygenOS, tailored for Indian needs and for the global market. There will be special emphasis on Artificial Intelligence, 5G and IoT, Lau said. In a separate discussion with OnePlus Product Manager, Szymon Kopec, said that OnePlus 5G lab will ensure that OnePlus phones are ready when the 5G rollout happens in India. The company is working with all three major carriers, including Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Jio, for 5G trials in the country and the Hyderabad lab will be at the centre of things.
OnePlus R&D facility has the same theme as the OnePlus camera lab in Taiwan. The design philosophy of the office is in tandem with the company's red and white colour scheme. We didn't quite see any recreational or gaming rooms, but the office encouraged an open co-working space with a few meeting rooms and a canteen overlooking Amazon's campus.
This new R&D lab will focus on five areas, including Network, Global Carrier Customization, OxygenOS native apps, global product development, software innovation and finally, testing. The OnePlus R&D will also have three labs for camera, communications and networking labs and automation labs in order to focus on some key areas that benefit consumers.
"The R&D facility will play a crucial role as OnePlus charts its roadmap towards adopting the Indian market as its home ground. OnePlus is committed to achieving long-term growth in India, and with the commencement of operations at the new R&D centre, OnePlus seeks to integrate & delve deeper into the 'Make in India' strategy," the company said.
